Patriot Viper Xtreme Division 2 DDR3-1866 8GB Kit Review

Packaging

I have to say that I like the way that Patriot packages products. You get a pretty clean box with only a picture of the memory on it. Patriot likes to let the performance of the product do the talking rather than explaining the 900 different specifications and features that are pressent. Opening the box up you get the plastic package that holds the ram and a paper that shows you once again which memory you have purchased.

Closer Look

The memory itself is very slick looking. I really like the copper inserts, it gives them a nice contrast from the all-black that we are accustomed to seeing these days. Using a heatsink such as the Noctua NH-D14 you will run into clearance issues with these sticks, however any heatsink smaller than that should work just fine. They ran cool to the touch throughout testing so that either means that they have great heatspreaders, or that there is not proper contact with the memory chips. I am hoping that the heatspreaders are just really good. All of that copper really adds some weight  to these sticks, they are definately not super light like many other sticks I have felt over the years.

If you are new to installing memory, thanks to Bobnova here is a quick and easy guide:

1. Remove your old ram, leaving the latches open.
2. Line the notch in the stick of ram up with the ridge in the slot.
3. Gently insert the ram and double-check that you have it in the proper way.
4. Apply firm pressure until the ram clicks in.  It should close the latches automatically.
5. You’re done!  Now you need to go into your bios and do the software part.

Test Setup and Procedure

The following system will be used to test this ram:

We’ll be using the following benchmarks and identification programs:

• CPU-Z
• AIDA64
• wprime
• Maxxmem
• Maxxmem2
  
• SuperPi 32m